How do you take two Oregon berries and a native nut and turn them into a nationwide company with scores of products? You start by growing them, creating products, packaging, marketing and selling them. Ask the team at Columbia Empire Farms/Your NW and they will tell you it is hard work and the rewards are well worth it.
Robert Pamplin’s dream began in 1976 with 300 acres of hazelnuts; he then employed the agricultural skills of college roommate Floyd Aylor. The farm added Marionberries and Totem strawberries to the fields. Sisters Linda Strand and Janet Pendergrass joined the team with a family background in marketing and things took off from there. Today, Columbia Empire Farms grows more than 2 million pounds of berries a year. Its marketing arm, Your Northwest, has become an incredible success story with stores in Woodburn, Oregon and six Your Northwest Travel Marts in the Portland International Airport as well as an online store www.yournw.com.
If you had to pick just a few of the many great products sold by CEF/YourNW, their line of exceptional Marionberry products would rank highest. Visitors and Oregonians alike love Marionberries, Oregon’s homegrown berry, with a sensational flavor profile. Your Northwest has captured the summer goodness of Marionberries in Marionberry All Fruit Jam, Marionberry Seedless Preserves, Marionberry Fruit Spread. If you are looking for a Sugar Free version of their delectable jams they have that too. Some companies would think that was plenty of Marionberry goodness, however, YourNW has learned to look at all the culinary avenues when developing products and came up with even more ways to delight your taste buds.
Grilling fans will welcome a versatile new product to their secret BBQ recipes, Marionberry BBQ Grill and Glaze. This sensational sauce has just the right amount of fiery kick linked with the tart- sweetness of Oregon Marionberries. Great on chicken, beef, and pork and absolutely amazing on grilled salmon, this is one you are sure to come back to when grilling for friends or family.
Of course you wouldn’t want to forget the beginning and end of a great meal, and naturally Columbia Empire Farms/Your Northwest has you covered here as well. Marionberry Pepper Jelly makes a fast and fabulous appetizer poured over cream cheese or Brie cheese, but why stop there, add some baby shrimp or crab and you’ll have a gourmet treat. Looking for ingredients for dessert? Why not try a Marionberry Cobbler Kit from Your NW, it has everything you need for a home baked cobbler from a jar of Marionberry filling to the dry ingredients ready to mix and bake.
Columbia Empire Farms has shown vertical integration - growing, harvesting, packaging and distributing their own products guarantees that only the freshest ingredients will be used in creating their exceptional preserves. Your NW regularly sources the finest regional products to complete their product line and their stores and website make them available worldwide. This partnership not only touches consumers but also looks to help those who are less fortunate through a variety of community outreach programs benefit disadvantaged youth, higher education and nonprofit agencies. Columbia Empire Farms/Your NW is definitely a company for the way we live today.
